Ritual for the Protection of Women

Items needed: four white tea candles, a mirror, and purified salt water.

Arrange the white candles at the edges of your altar on the sides that correspond
with the cardinal points.

Purify, cast Circle, and invoke the God and Goddess.

Stand before the altar; breathe deeply while centering your mind on the need to help women. Visualize the moon above you, as you breathe take in her white light and let it fill your body. Feel her energy spreading outward from your lungs and into the rest of your body.

When you feel full of light, say:

“The moon arises, the Goddess draws near!
Her powerful presence is with me.”

Hold your power hand over the water, charge it with the moon’s light and say:

“Cold fire of the moon,
Purify my altar with your power.”

Sprinkle a few drops on each side of the altar near the white candles, then moving
clockwise around your Circle sprinkle the outer edges of your ritual area.

Light the white candle that is in the East, hold up the mirror and face it outward, and
say :

“Beloved Moon, Lamp of the Night, let this candle be a symbol of your gentle shining. Behold, the Lady’s light appears to guide Her children. Those in the East, use your knowledge and understanding to realize that your women need respect and equality. Protect the women, but do not smother their right to grow!”

Light the white candle in the South, hold up the mirror and face it outward, and say:

“Beloved Moon, Lamp of the night, let this candle be a symbol of your gentle shining. Behold, the Lady’s light appears to guide Her children. Those in the South, use your strength of passion to help your women fulfill their own desires. Protect your women, but do not smother their right to be true to themselves.”

Light the white candle in the West, hold up the mirror and face it outward, and say:

“Beloved Moon, Lamp of the night, let this candle be a symbol of your gentle shining. Behold, the Lady’s light appears to guide Her children. Those in the West, use your strong emotions to build a bridge of understanding where equality is given reign to grow. Protect your women but do not smother their intuition.”

Light the white candle in the North, hold up the mirror and face it outward, and say:

“Beloved Moon, Lamp of the night, let this candle be a symbol of your gentle shining. Behold, the Lady’s light appears to guide Her children. Those in the North, use the strength of your beliefs, your want of a strong family to allow your women to find their own power. Protect your women, but do not assume that they are all weak and helpless.”

Hold the mirror up so that you can see your own reflection in it, study your face for a
few moments and try to see the Divine within your features. Allow any feelings rise up in you at the persecution of women, you are free to feel indignant, or scared, or righteous.

In a strong voice say:

“I am a daughter (son) of the Moon Goddess, She who sees all. My heart weeps and cries out with Her over the injustices that we do to each other. No matter what our race, creed, or sex we need to have equality and justice for all. Women have a voice; it should be allowed to be heard! I call upon the Goddess to help us to bring aid to all women! Holy Mother, shelter them in Your hands, guide them with Your wisdom! Help us to create a better future where we can lead all the women of the world out of pain and terror and into Your light! Heal our minds and bodies! Grant to women their freedom, equality, safety, respect, and all else that they might need!”

Reach your hands upward and say:

“I am the Goddess’ beloved.
My lungs take in Her breath.
My veins run with Her red.
Blessed are the feet
That have walked my Path
Of trials and pleasure.
My hands are Her hands,
I am God as surely as
I created the Universe.
I need bow down before no-one,
Nor before any deity.
My body is Her body,
Glistening with the sweat of stars.
My tears and my sex are Her gifts;
I bestow these as I will.
Goddess within and without,
Fill all women with the light
That exposes evil,
That evil flees from;
Fill me with the light that illuminates us
In our hiding, that we may come from the shadows
And bathe in the joy of the light.”

Remain with your arms up for a few moments, allow the energy to flow through you;
let your body be a pipeline for healing, for the balancing energy of the moon. Allow the energy to leave you to travel to where it is most needed.

When the energy has left you, walk tuathail around your altar and extinguish each of the white candles. For each one say:

“Carry my message of peace and equality to all people,
Let the moon’s light open their eyes to change and justice.”

When done, stand before your altar, raise your arms again and say:

“Lovely Lady of the Moon, bless and purify me with your light. Thank you for empowering me this night!”

Bless the cakes and wine, eat the simple feast, and open Circle.

Phaedra's Notes:

This was done back in 1999 because a call was sent out by Yasmine Galenorn to help alleviate the suffering of the women in Afghanistan. I got the letter through the Sagewoman mailing list and decided to join in. We were all supposed to do it on the full moon in September but I can't remember (and didn't make a notation) if we were supposed to be doing it at a certain time, or just on the same night. Teaches me to have a better written record, yes?

I did this with Maia and the whole thing took us about 20 minutes. I wrote that I was feeling calm and had 'good feelings' about the ritual, but I don't remember anything specific. However, I know that there were at least two more calls sent out, one in October of '99 and another in March of '01... so I guess we weren't all that successful. I know that with the latter two rituals, I used a different spell but there was never any feeling of 'global' connection with other practitioners. I'd never worked in that type of setting before, if I were to do this now I know that my ritual would be rather different.

With all that said, that doesn't make this a bad ritual, I still think it's very evocative and if I have a smaller scale on which to perform it, I'd like to. I think that there is a lot to this spell, it just wasn't used as effectively as it could have been.